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Frankie Boyle may have staked his claim as the country's most controversial comedian in the last couple of years, but for sheer offence there can be nobody with the track record of Stewart Lee. As one of the creators of Jerry Springer: The Opera, he's responsible for the most complained-about show in UK history.
Despite this, he was recently given his own BBC2 series, but any fears that Lee was moving into the mainstream were put to bed by the show's mix of surreal, intelligent and provocative comedy. Perhaps due to this exposure, the York leg of his national tour was a sell-out.
The show's title, If You Prefer A Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One, proved deceptively apt. I say deceptively, because even if you're familiar with Stewart Lee's edgy side, the persona he creates is one of cynicism rather than anger, and on stage he is immensely likeable and entertaining.
But Lee is not afraid of getting pretty dark at times and he frequently launched into personal attacks on seemingly innocent victims. The worst of his wrath was reserved for the intentionally non-PC banter of Top Gear, and specifically Richard Hammond, who he hates “more than anyone who has ever lived”. As he deadpanned a hilariously depraved rant about why he wished Hammond had died in his car crash – a joke, he assures us, just like on Top Gear - you could sense the audience collectively wincing. Out of context this sounds like one of Boyle's cruel pot shots towards an easy target, but the key to Stewart Lee is the intelligence of his arguments: his attacks are well structured and disarmingly persuasive.
Other targets of his rants include Michael McIntyre and Magners pear cider ads, from which he spun a brilliant historical yarn about the origins of the immortal phrase, “I'll give it to you straight, like a pear cider made from 100% pear”. This turned out to be one of the most unlikely comedy catchphrases of recent years, but the exquisite timing of his anecdotes left the audience in fits of laughter before he'd even reached the punchline.
Stewart Lee deserves to be more well-known, but he's unlikely to ever be popular with the mainstream crowd, and maybe that's a good thing. Unflinching in his scathing satire, unapologetic in his liberal, middle-class, highbrow appeal, and fiercely intelligent, his comedy certainly does not pander to the masses. But if you can take it, he's staggeringly funny, and his boundary-pushing routines are a dark delight.
I love Stewart Lee so so much!! He knows exactly what's wrong with the world, and he knows how to tell you in unimaginably funny ways. Great review Pete, really captured what the show was about. 
He's pretty funny but he's not the best comedian ever.
I am a massive Stewart Lee fan, I think he's a comedy god but I was a bit disappointed with the gig. Almost too intelligent when live to be laugh out loud funny. After the gig though I went to the punchbowl and the advert in the toilet was the Magners advert, very ironic.
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